


red as flame

by ohclare



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-16
Updated: 2012-12-16
Packaged: 2017-11-21 07:13:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/594939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohclare/pseuds/ohclare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's fifteen when he meets her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	red as flame

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by the prompt 'cider' as part of the christmas 25 days of fic but isn't actually christmassy

He’s fifteen when he meets her. The party is busy and he just catches a glimpse from across the room. He thinks her beautiful with hair as red as flame and a laughing mouth. Sam doesn’t know who she is either and neither are brave enough to ask. He stares at her for most of the night.

It’s a few weeks later when he sees her again. She approaches him in town and asks his name. She laughs when stumbles over the word Jon and she doesn’t tell him hers.

He sees her around school sometimes, laughing with those older than him. It’s only when he sees her with Val that he feels brave enough to ask what her name is. Val just laughs and teases him and eventually tells him that she’s called Ygritte.

It’s at Val’s birthday when they have a real conversation, when she pulls him away from Sam and into a corner. She gives him a can of cider and even though he doesn’t drink he drinks it anyway. He blames the nonsense he talks on the alcohol and she laughs because he’s only had a few sips. She kisses him anyway.

She invites him to the pub the next week. He doesn’t tell her he’s fifteen. She buys him cider again and tells him she likes having a toy boy. He hopes she can’t see his red face in the dark room.

When she jumps up at him and wraps her arms round his neck he tries not to turn red but the wolf whistles of his friends mean it’s unavoidable. He likes it though, even if he refuses to talk about her to anyone. His friends think it’s hilarious, they tell him that they were sure he was gay and maybe he ought to fuck her before they change their minds again. He ignores them.

He doesn’t fuck her until he’s sixteen. He doesn’t know what he’s doing but she laughs and tells him it doesn’t matter.

They’ve been going out a year when he tells his family. He’s more nervous than she is when she comes round for dinner and wins them all over with a few jokes and compliments. He tells her that he’s never loved her more and she just laughs at him.

He’s stupidly thankful when she tells him she’s joining the police and not going to university. He didn’t want to lose her to some distant part of the country. She laughs and tells him that there’s only a year before he goes himself.

University is a torment for him, he’s only a few hours away but she works long hours and neither of them ever have the time to see each other. When they break up after Christmas he cries for days and Sam doesn’t know what to do.

He’s tries to see other girls, he kisses and fucks them but none of them are her and he just gives up in the end. He calls her when he’s drunk but she never picks up and eventually Val tells him that if he doesn’t stop she’ll punch him. He makes Sam delete her number.

It’s an accident when he sees her again. When he’d graduated he’d moved far away but she’s somehow in the same city and he stares at her across the street. When his work colleagues laugh and ask whether he’s got a hard on for women in uniform he doesn’t reply.

He goes to the police station that night and asks for her. When she appears she tells him that if he’d given his name she wouldn’t have come out. He asks her whether she’ll join him for a drink later. Somehow she agrees.

He buys her a cheap cider from their days of underage drinking and tries to find out what she’s been doing. He fucks her in the toilet because she refuses to let him come back to hers.

It starts a pattern. They meet in pubs in the evenings and talk before resorting to teenage habits. He wants more but she refuses. She’s different now and laughs when he tells her so. He still loves her more than ever.

They’re in the back of his car when he tells her that he wants more than this, that he wants to marry her and tell the world that he’s hers. She tells him that he doesn’t know what he’s saying.

A week later she invites him to hers for the first time and tells him not to dress up. He doesn’t expect the small dark haired child who opens the door to him and announces brightly that he must be her mummy’s friend. He meets her eyes and understands why she refused to let him come before but despite his fear he doesn’t run away. Later she tells him that Lyanna was the reason she broke up with him, because she didn’t want to ruin his life. He tells her that he doesn’t care, that he still loves her.

Slowly he works his way into both of their lives, learning what it means to be a father to a child that is his mother and Ygritte in miniature. The first time she calls him daddy he has to force himself not to cry. He buys her all the presents he can until he’s told to stop spoiling her. He wishes that he had been there when she was a baby, that his parents could have met her, that he doesn’t live so far away from his family so that they can wonder over her perfection too.

He asks Ygritte to marry him again and this time she says yes.

Lyanna is their maid of honour, Sam is his best man, Val is her bridemaid and all of his family that’s left come. She is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen when she comes up the aisle and he’s sure he’s going to burst from happiness. He’s never been so happy in his whole life.

They discover she’s pregnant on their honeymoon and this time he’s determined to be there every step of the way. He kisses her growing belly every day.

He’s terrified that he’s going to lose her when she develops complications but she survives and when three beautiful baby boys are placed in front of him he can’t kiss her enough. She laughs and tells him that they are the three heads of the dragon that his father always used to talk about. They call them Rhaegar, Eddard and Mance for those that they lost.

She’d only popped to the corner shop when he hears a siren in the distance and when she doesn’t return he’s sure that it’s because the police are blocking the street. He doesn’t expect the police to knock on their door and he doesn’t believe them when they tell him that she was knocked down crossing the road. It’s only after he sees her body that he believes and yet he cannot cry.

He doesn’t tell Lyanna yet and he cannot tell the boys, he just puts them all to bed and hopes they’ll sleep through the night.

It’s only when he pops their cider open that he cries and cries and cannot stop.


End file.
